The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) has announced that Professor Roland Clift CBE is the recipient of the 12th George E Davis Medal, the highest award conferred by the Institution. The award recognises his contributions to both theory and practice in engineering of particle-fluid systems and in engineering for sustainability.

Roland Clift graduated from this department in 1964 before going on to obtain his PhD from McGill University in Canada. His research on particle-fluid systems continued at Cambridge, then the University of Surrey where he became Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1981. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Environmental Technology in the University of Surrey’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES).

Professor Clift commented: "I have always seen chemical engineering as more than the branch of engineering applied in the chemical and process sectors: it is a way of thinking that brings together key scientific tools so that they can be applied in many areas. It is an essential component of the emerging discipline of industrial ecology. I am particularly gratified that the IChemE has chosen to recognise work that expands the scope of chemical engineering beyond George Davis' original conception."

The medal presentation will take place on Thursday 6 July 2017 following the 12th George E. Davis Lecture entitled Seeing the Whole Picture: chemical engineering and the science of sustainability. The event will be at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London.

The presentation will be followed by a performance of 'Adagio in G minor for string quartet', a piece composed by the ever-versatile Clift himself in 1967.